Nacho Libre
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: June 16, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
52
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
21
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
Endearingly ridiculous. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
What's rare to see, and what ultimately makes Nacho Libre so enjoyable, is the story of an underdog who's allowed to remain a humble clown all the way to becoming a hero. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Black's caped "luchador" grows on you. Like a fun guy. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
What is missing in plot and character development is made up for in silly fun. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle Smith
Hess' deadpan dorks are strange, really strange. As in the Christopher Guest movies, there is a distinct comedy architecture you recognize from the opening minutes. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
An amiably clunky, unapologetically silly summer confection that nevertheless lands sufficient lethal slams to the funny bone. Read full review
70
VarietyJoe Leydon
Nacho Libre strikes a delicate balance of whimsy and absurdity that may surprise auds primed to expect wall-to-wall slapstick. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
The movie is semi-infantile camp but often riotous. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
You either come into Nacho Libre ready to surrender yourself to Hess' quirks and smirks or you don't. Middle ground is virtually impossible to imagine. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
The sweetness of Nacho's nature, along with Black's unselfconscious physical enthusiasm, turn all this into a live-action cartoon, with the ring violence having no greater consequence than a Wile E. Coyote fall from a high place. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
The film is easy to take and easy to forget, even with Black running around Oaxaca in turquoise wrestling tights. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
The movie is a bauble, but it's an enjoyably weird and original one, and it is anchored by Black's constantly amusing performance. Read full review
60
EmpireIan Nathan
A daft idea perfectly calibrated to Black’s pop mania, then hermetically sealed by a director who thinks he’s making a Hal Hartley movie. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
It's weird, clean, good-natured fun, and it's far too subdued for its madcap milieu. Read full review
58
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
Nacho Libre enhances Hess' reputation as a gifted filmmaker and suggests there's more to Black than manic dementia. Both director and actor, however, need to find projects better-suited to their respective (and often impressive) talents. Read full review
50
Village VoiceRobert Wilonsky
Nacho Libre plays like a Jack Black best-of, down to the song he wrote and performs for de La Reguera that sounds like some Tejano version of a Tenacious D throwaway. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
Like the abominable "Napoleon Dynamite," director Jared Hess' second feature will doubtless capture the hearts and minds of 12-year-old boys everywhere, even if Nacho Libre sacrifices the earlier film's aggressive mean-spiritedness in favor of gentle slapstick lunacy. Read full review
50
PremiereAaron Hillis
When he runs out of material to tickle with, Black dips into his musically tenacious "deedle-diddle-dee" for some sure-fire ridiculousness. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Infinitely more entertaining than anything the WWE has done recently, this sophomore outing from "Napoleon Dynamite" director Hess is full of cheesy goodness, but it's Velveeta. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
By making Nacho a do-gooder, Hess defuses Black's subversive energy. You could argue that Black also played a do-gooder in "School of Rock," but the kids in that film were a lot spunkier, and Black wasn't constantly playing for sympathy as he does here. Read full review
50
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Is it funny? Now and then. Stupid? Very. Racist? Possibly. Ugly? Profoundly. Wild? Undeniably. Singular? Completely. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
How can any comedy with Jack Black as a Mexican wrestler not be gut-bustingly hilarious? Nacho Libre provides an all-too-convincing answer. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Once Nacho gets the wrestling bug, though, it's all about Jack Black the irrepressible clown, and the comedy dies a slow death for lack of fresh ideas.
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Too much in Nacho Libre doesn't work to enable me to recommend it to anyone except a card-carrying member of the Jack Black fan club. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
The two stars of Nacho Libre, Jack Black and Jack Black's hair, take different paths. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Mike White contributed to the script, and though he shares with the Hesses an innocence that can be both sweet and slightly grotesque (e.g., Chuck and Buck), his influence is most evident here in the conventional plotting. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Very broad and very silly, it's a doodle of a comedy -- a one-joke idea (fat guy goes luchador) padded out to feature length by Black's willingness to do anything for a laugh. Read full review
50
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
As with "Napoleon Dynamite," Hess' sense of humor is an acquired taste, where all the characters speak in peculiar cadences and are afflicted with a terminal case of the "quirkies." What’s unfortunately missing from Nacho Libre is much in the way of humor. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
The comedy is hit and miss, with good bits interrupted by dead patches. It's a movie to root for more than to enjoy. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
This is a comedy at cross-purposes -- by turns low-key, bombastic, mildly amusing, manically slapstick. At least there are the fart jokes as a connecting thread. Read full review
50
The New YorkerDavid Denby
There are many scenes of mock-lucha wrestling, which become as boring as actual wrestling. Nacho Libre, naïvely made kids’ stuff, lacks such minor attributes as a decent script and supporting cast. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
This Nacho leaves your palate longing for more spice and less rancid cheese. Read full review
40
SlateDana Stevens
Sputters to an ignominious halt in the first 20 minutes. Read full review
38
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
It's a one-gag film that rises or falls on how funny you find the sight of fat, grease-slicked Jack Black crammed into spandex pants and capering like an epileptic lamb. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
It takes some doing to make a Jack Black comedy that doesn't work. But Nacho Libre does it. Read full review
33
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
You can see what the film was going for, but the jokes just sit there; you chuckle a few times, mostly out of lame hope, but you never bust a gut, never really get what you came for. Read full review
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